An examination of the factorial structure of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire–Brief (SPQ-B) among undergraduate students

Cognitive-perceptual, interpersonal, and disorganized subscales of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire–Brief (SPQ-B), reflecting the three commonly used subscales of the full-version SPQ, have been used in a number of studies. However, the factorial validity of SPQB subscales remains to be clarified. Utilizing data from 825 undergraduate students, confirmatory factor analyses involving the 22 items of the SPQ-B were conducted. A significant χ2 difference test favored the 3-factor over the 1-factor model and fit indices for the 3-factor model were generally satisfactory. However, several of the items may index more than one of the hypothesized factors, so the item-factor separation is not sharp. Thus, more research is needed on the factorial validity of the increasingly used SPQ-B subscales

Neural Correlates of Treatment in Adolescents with Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Preliminary Investigation

Objective: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a prevalent and debilitating psychiatric condition in adolescence. Two effective forms of treatment are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. This pilot study examined changes in brain function following each type of treatment in GAD. Method: Subjects were 14 youth with GAD (7 had CBT, 7 received fluoxetine) and 10 age- and gender-matched healthy peers. FMRI scans were acquired before and after treatment for patients, and over two comparable time points for controls. During fMRI acquisition, a probe detection task with emotional (angry, happy) and neutral faces allowed for assessment of neural response to threat. Following previous research, region of interest analyses were performed in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). Results: FMRI results showed increased VLPFC activation, relative to controls, in the medication (t(15) = 3.01, p \u3c 0.01) and CBT (t(15) = 3.22, p \u3c 0.01) groups following treatment. Conclusions: This study shows significant increase in VLPFC activation in response to angry faces following treatment with CBT or fluoxetine for GAD. This is consistent with previous research indicating that the VLPFC may facilitate effective responding to underlying neural correlates of anxiety in other brain regions, such as the amygdala

Attention bias toward threat in pediatric anxiety disorders

Objective: To examine attention bias toward threat faces in a large sample of anxiety-disordered youths using a well- established visual probe task. Method: Study participants included 101 children and adolescents (ages 7Y18 years) with generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, and/or separation anxiety disorder enrolled in a multisite anxiety treatment study. Nonanxious youths (n = 51; ages 9Y18 years) were recruited separately. Participants were administered a computerized visual probe task that presents pairs of faces portraying threat (angry), positive (happy), and neutral expressions. They pressed a response key to indicate the spatial location of a probe that replaced one of the faces on each trial. Attention bias scores were calculated from response times to probes for each emotional face type. Results: Compared to healthy youths, anxious participants demonstrated a greater attention bias toward threat faces. This threat bias in anxious patients did not significantly vary across the anxiety disorders. There was no group difference in attention bias toward happy faces. Conclusions: These results suggest that pediatric anxiety disorders are associated with an attention bias toward threat. Future research may examine the manner in which cognitive bias in anxious youths changes with treatment